Chris just graduated from Lake Forest College this year and will be attending graduate school to study Student Services, hoping to make a difference in the lives of future first generation college students. Jasmine was just accepted to the Mortuary Science program at Malcom X college - congratulations! Both of these students were thrilled to win a MacBook Pro to support them as they continue their studies.

Galilea and Bryan will graduate this Sunday from Golder. Bryan will take his talents to University of Illinois on full scholarship and Galilea will attend Lycoming University in Pennsylvania. Both students have worked so hard through their years at Golder to deserve this.

Thank you to all the supporters of the Tech Fund for making this possible! Your support truly changes these students' lives and makes the transition to college and beyond a successful one.

We are very excited to announce a new partnership for the Terri Race Tech Fund! The Chicago Youth Centers Fellowship House in the Bridgeport neighborhood provides after school care and programming for students of all ages. Just look at those happy faces holding iPads and Chromebooks thanks to your generous support of the fund! This will give them more tools to complete homework, do research and of course, have fun engaging with technology. CYC has a heavy focus on STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts and Mathematics). Thanks to your donations, their passionate and driven staff will continue their training in the field at a Maker Lab Conference in San Francisco this Spring!

Happy New Year, tech fund family! I hope you all had a restful and healthy end to 2016 and are off to a rollin' start in the new year. We've made our first donation of 2017 to a worthy foundation, Girls Who Code.

According to their website, computing skills are the most sought-after in the US job market, with demand growing 3X the national average. Computing is where the jobs are -- and where they will be in the future -- and yet our girls are being left behind. Our recent #CracktheCode research report shows that if we act now, we can actually triple the amount of women in computing by 2025.

Our final donation of this giving season was to the Hephzibah Group Home in Oak Park. Their tireless volunteers have created such a functional and engaging Technology Room to help their young residents not only advance their computer skills, but also encourage growth in important academic and life skills like presenting and sharing. This donation is near and dear to the mission of the TRETF and we could not be more pleased with how it turned out.